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Former Showtime boxing honcho dies

Jay Larkin ran sport's division for cabler

Jay Larkin, the former head of boxing at Showtime who became one of the most powerful executives in the sport, died Aug. 9 in Nyack, N.Y., after a battle with brain cancer. He was 59.

Larkin spent 22 years at Showtime and ran the boxing department at the premium cable network for more than a decade until he was fired in November 2005 amid cutbacks at corporate parent Viacom.

With Larkin at the helm, Showtime emerged as a challenger to HBO's boxing dominance by televising some of the sport's biggest events, including bouts involving Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Julio Cesar Chavez.

He was the network's key negotiator for the 2002 heavyweight championship bout between Lennox Lewis and Tyson, which was, at the time, the biggest money fight in boxing history. In a rarity, the fight also was televised by HBO.

After leaving Showtime, Larkin worked as president of the International Fight League, a now-defunct mixed martial arts outfit.